School Zone

    (Dark Horse, 2006)
™ and © 1996 Kanako Inuki
Black and white series; read right to left.

Objectively speaking, School Zone may not be the scariest manga ever. What kicks it up a terror notch is that it focuses on children. Children have a sense of foreboding when it comes to evil that adults cannot sense. Additionally, a child lacks power. When a parent or teacher forces a child into an environment that the student feels to be haunted or otherwise tainted, the child has no choice but to suck it up and forge ahead. It’s an eerie combination: Kids know it’s dangerous, but there’s nothing they can do to avoid their fate.
The school in question has 13 ghost stories. When a student learns them all, bad stuff is sure to happen. Most dangerous of all is the school zone. Ironically constructed to protect the children from traffic, it serves as home to perhaps the direst threat of all.
School Zone enjoys Japanese sensibilities and pacing of horror that readers might appreciate from The Ring manga series. Don’t judge based on American adaptations; Japanese horror has a flavor all its own.
—Jack Abramowitz

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